How to Use also-ran in a Sentence

also-ran

noun

• The idea is not to fill the Kentucky Derby gate with also-rans.
  — Guy Martin, Forbes.com, 30 Apr. 2025
• And to think at least two of them will be postseason also-rans in 2023.
  — Nate Davis, USA TODAY, 24 Apr. 2023
• This is a choice that will confront others among the also-rans at some point, as well.
  — The Editors, National Review, 28 Aug. 2023
• But instead, the Cubs have been unable to push past the also-ran threshold.
  — Jared Wyllys, Forbes, 25 Nov. 2024
• Depending on the week, the Phils have looked like the best team in baseball or a complete also-ran.
  — Tony Blengino, Forbes.com, 11 June 2025
• One of these also-rans was Pete Kreis, who first competed in the race in 1925.
  — Mark Yost, WSJ, 25 May 2023
• His wealth has transformed the fortunes of City, taking the club from an also-ran in the English Premier League to a dominant force.
  — Pan Pylas, Quartz, 13 Mar. 2024
• Plus also-rans from the V.P. search that ended yesterday with Walz as winner.
  — Axios, 7 Aug. 2024
• South Carolina was 3-3 to start the season and looked to be headed for an also-ran season in the SEC despite a pair of close losses.
  — Dan Santaromita, The Athletic, 31 Dec. 2024
• At a forum like the P.G.A. Championship, those travails separate the elite from the crowd of also-rans that will be thick since the field includes 156 players.
  — Alan Blinder, New York Times, 16 May 2023
• But the progress stalled and McLaren began last season at the back of the field, before a car upgrade in the middle of 2023 turned them from also-rans into title contenders.
  — Dan Cancian, Forbes, 9 Dec. 2024
• Yet almost two weeks after voters went to the polls, the country of 240 million finds itself on the brink of being governed by a coalition of the also-rans.
  — Hasan Ali, The Christian Science Monitor, 21 Feb. 2024
• Women athletes for decades have mostly been also-rans in the sports marketplace.
  — Joel Mathis, theweek, 22 Mar. 2024
• That's because the choicest ones get snatched up early, leaving only the straggly also-rans.
  — Felix Salmon, Axios, 10 Dec. 2024
• The 1990 season marked the Reds’ last World Series win before the evolving economics of the game turned them into a near-permanent also-ran.
  — Brandon Harris, The New Yorker, 7 Aug. 2024
• The rules of the 2024 nominating contest are not meant to encourage also-rans from sticking around to pick up a delegate here or there.
  — TIME, 16 Jan. 2024
• That leaves Google — long an also-ran in the U.S. smartphone market — with an opportunity.
  — Chris Velazco, Washington Post, 10 May 2023
• Or a two-time presidential also-ran looking for a soft landing?
  — Michael R. Blood, Chicago Tribune, 22 May 2025
• That could change when new episodes premiere on Netflix, which, time and again, has proven its ability to turn other platforms’ also-rans into hits.
  — Vulture, 26 Jan. 2024
• After Petersen, Iacocca and Welch, the rest were also-rans, the poll indicated.
  — Detroit Free Press, 26 Apr. 2024
• Straight country and hip-hop tend to be also-rans when voters are casting ballots in these top four categories, which covers most of the other outside-chancers.
  — Chris Willman, Variety, 4 Oct. 2024
• Haas, in other words, is Formula 1’s basement dweller; their aspirations each year are not to vie for a title but to best fellow also-rans like Williams and Alpine.
  — Erik Shilling, Robb Report, 13 Mar. 2024
• After years of wallowing in also-ran status, the Lions had a magical season that put them on the brink of their first Super Bowl appearance.
  — Gil Kaufman, Billboard, 31 Jan. 2024
• Games were starting to become more popular, but they were powered by CPUs, central processing units, and then graphics were kind of like an also-ran.
  — Lauren Goode, WIRED, 29 Feb. 2024
• The Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, and especially the floor, might be the only place on earth where the Microsoft founder was an also-ran in the stakes for attention.
  — Luciana Lopez, CNN Money, 4 May 2025
• As the team’s First Nations players, fans, and also-rans shape their lives beyond the ice, generational trauma, addiction, and a paucity of choices loom large.
  — Monitor Contributors, Christian Science Monitor, 11 Apr. 2025
• But the tragedy of each also-ran still merited rigorous coverage.
  — John Ganz, Harper's Magazine, 22 May 2024
• Nike, for its part, was a running-shoe powerhouse but basketball also-ran, ranking third in market share behind Converse and arguably dead last in terms of street cred.
  — Vulture, 15 May 2023
• But if players such as Smith and Johnson are unable to recreate their past magic sooner than later, the league’s prospects could diminish into a circuit of also-rans.
  — Alan Blinder, BostonGlobe.com, 3 Apr. 2023
• In a motor-sport where milliseconds separate champions from also-rans, hiding technical know-how from opponents is as key as a fresh pair of tires.
  — Sean Gregory, Time, 13 June 2025